Timely Writer Part Two: Heartbreak

 The is 2nd part to prior post Timely Writer - Part One: Humble Beginnings

1982 started with Triple Crown dreams for Timely Writer.  He was clearly one of the odds on favorites for The Kentucky Derby, but he still had to prove himself with some solid race results before "The Run of The Roses" on the first Saturday in May.

His first test would be in February at The Flamingo Prep race where he could again challenge Deputy Minister, which he handily beat in The Champagne Stakes in October 1981.  Yet in a snub, Deputy Minister won the Eclipse Award for Horse of the Year.  So this would help decide which horse was the best of the two.

Feb. 25th, 1982 Boston Globe

Unfortunately neither horse ended in the money as Timely Writer finished sixth and Deputy Minister finished last.  But Dom Imprescia stated, "All we wanted was a good prep under him.  The race did him a lot of good. We'll see what happens in The Flamingo. That's the one we're aiming for."

The Flamingo Stakes in March would be his next test.  The press labeled him a "cripple" after his performance in the Flamingo Prep race, and maybe his luck had run out.  There was a bit of bad luck when they drew for positions in the starting gate. Timely Writer drew pole position 16 (of 16), which was in an auxiliary gate to accommodate the extra large field of 16 horses.  As Dom put it, "We're out in the free parking lot.  We're gonna need an awful lot of luck."

March 7, 1981 Boston Globe

As the headline above states, he proved the naysayers wrong and came from 10th place to win by 3 1/2 lengths.  Vindicated, he was now considered the top contender for the Kentucky Derby.  The other big news that day was the sale of half share of the horse for $3 million.  This would take place on October 30th when the owners retire the horses from racing and start the more lucrative stud services.

The next race scheduled was The Florida Derby which featured the unbeaten favorite horse Star Gallant.  Even as one of the best horses in the field, the Cinderella horse Timely Writer couldn't shake the doubters who couldn't believe he could stand with the higher pedigree horses.

April 4, 1982 Boston Globe

The Florida Stakes win finally made Timely Writer the undisputed favorite to the Kentucky Derby, with the Boston Globe stating "It was such an impressive victory that Timely Writer may become one of the shortest priced favorites in Kentucky Derby history."  In laymen terms, he will be such a favorite - most likely to win - that his payout would be very low.

Now it was less than a month away from earning the first jewel in a Triple Crown run, and the owners, trainer and Boston were on top of the world - we had the makings of one of the greatest horses from the northeast.

The unthinkable - 11 days before the Derby, Timely Writer came down with a case of life threatening gastroenteritis.  Dom had to stand in front of reporters and utter "He's definitely out of the Derby."  But the main concern at this time was saving the horse.  Dom's goal was to get the horse back to Florida and he took an optimistic tone, "There is always the fall classics," he said.

The Comeback

After near death 11 days before the Kentucky Derby, Dom used the next 19 weeks to get the colt ready for his next race in his Boston home at Suffolk Downs.  The Yankee Handicap took place on August 14th and questions swirled if the horse could be back in his pre-derby form.  Again in dramatics fit for a Hollywood movie, Timely Writer went from next to last place at the halfway point of the race and then charged past his rivals to win at a near track record pace.

One of the new half-share owners, Dr. William Reed, commented, "This colt is a magnificent athlete and Dom has done a tremendous job getting this colt ready.  He did it this winter after a four-month layoff after the Champagne Stakes and he did it again.  He's a wonder."

The next two races showed how unpredictable Timely Writer could be. At the Marlboro Cup on September 18th he came in a disappointing seventh place only to win the Avatar Cup in his next race.  Now it was down to his last race, The Jockey Cup at Belmont Track.

This was the horse's last chance at greatness and a shot at Horse of the Year for 1982, an honor he deserved in 1981, but was overlooked.  And the owners determined this was his last race as Francis Martin stated, "Win or Lose this is going to be his swan song".  Little did he know how tragically true his words were.

On a live TV broadcast I remember watching the tragedy unfold. A half mile from the finish Timely Writer's leg shattered and a horse pile up ensued resulting in two horse fatalities.  The full two page Boston Globe story is here (page 1, page 2).

The Martins and Dom requested for Timely Writer to be buried in the infield of Belmont Park in the same location as another champion horse Ruffian who was buried there in 1975.  The New York Racing Association (NYRA) approved the request and he had the honor or being laid to rest at Belmont where he died.

It is hard to comprehend the loss both emotionally and financially as this was to be his last race and the start of the most lucrative phase of his career when the horse would go to stud.  With all the attention Timely Writer had in his racing career it would have been worth millions.  The Martins lost the $3M dollar  half share that would have been paid after retirement.  So they never received payment, the horse did have winnings of $605,000 during his career but his potential was much greater.  The Martin's did take out a $3 million dollar insurance policy on the colt, and this led to the end of the Martin's and Dom Imprescia's relationship.

In the contract between trainer and owners, the trainer gets 20% of the winnings and syndication (shares in the horse) revenue.  But there was a catch; the Martin's did not include Dom in the insurance policy and Dom believed the contract was for 20% of everything. "The Martins just left me out in the cold.  They figure I don't deserve anything.  But they had given me 20% of everything with Timely Writer." Dom said.  The ten year relationship ended on a sour note and Dom missed out on $600,000 of the insurance he felt he deserved for making the horse the champion contender he became.

The legacy of Timely Writer did not end in 1982. In 1983 Suffolk Downs in Boston created the Timely Writer Handicap race which ran for several years and later Gulfstream in Florida honored the horse with the Timely Writer Stakes in 2011.

Final Resting Place

As I was researching for this post I came across something new that I do not think anyone in the family knows.  In October 2023, Belmont Park was renovated and constructed a new synthetic track which required the remains of Ruffian and Timely Writer to be exhumed and transferred to a new resting place.  The New York Racing Association sent Timely Writer to Old Friends Farm, a thoroughbred horse retirement farm and cemetery in Georgetown Kentucky.  I reached to out the farm for any information and Barbara Fossum sent me the photo below and described "The photo is taken from behind the graves of War Emblem & Medina Spirit. He is near Noor and Skip Away, both also reinterred, and Alphabet Soup, Charismatic and Hidden Lake, who all lived here." 

Tractor lowers the remains of Timely Writer into final resting place at Old Friends Farm in Georgetown, Kentucky in October 2023

Timely Writer - Part One: Humble Beginnings

Domenic Imprescia with Timely Writer

 My grandmother's brother was a bit of a legend within the family.  From his very humble beginnings in Fitchburg as a son of Italian immigrants, he became a nationally known thoroughbred horse trainer.  Dom always had a love of horses. His first business was a riding academy at his parents' house on South Street in 1941.

Nov. 13, 1941 Fitchburg Sentinel

He later opened his riding school on Klondike Avenue in Lunenburg and then entered the Merchant Marines during World War Two. 

After returning from the war in 1946 he began a career in used auto sales first with existing car dealers then branching out on his own with a used car business on Water Street.  Soon after starting the auto dealership he became the owner of racehorses in 1947. After a year and a half none of the five horses had won a race, so he took matters into his own hands and became the horse trainer.

Working seven days a week, starting at the stables at 5am and ending at the car lot at 9pm, Dom held down two jobs for 12 years until 1960 when he sold the auto business and became a full time trainer at 42 years old.

Working the New England race circuit he became the trainer of several horses including those from two butchers in Boston, Francis and Peter Martin. In 1980 the Martin’s purchased a colt for $13,500 (a small price for a thoroughbred) and named him Timely Writer after the horse's parents, Staff Writer and Timely Roman. 

1981 - A year of success

At 63 years old, when many consider retirement, Domenic had what may have been the best year of his career.  Under his training he had a promising two-year old filly, Elpaso Patty, a five-year-old colt Soldier Boy, and finally there was the start of the career of his greatest horse Timely Writer.

I do not know much about horse racing but read up on the hierarchy to races.  The Kentucky Derby, for example, is a Grade 1 race, reserved for the best of the best.  There are also Grade 2 and Grade 3 races, which also carry prestige and are stepping stones to qualify for higher Grade races.  At the very bottom of the hierarchy are Claimer races.  Claimer races have a claim amount announced at the start of the race for anyone (usually a trainer or owner) to "claim" or buy the horse at the end of the race.  Win or lose, if someone claims the horse they own it; if no one claims the horse, it stays with the current owner.  This is one of the most common types of races since it allows easy entrance for horses that are new or average performers.  These would be the blue-collar types of races, where the non-millionaire types who love horse racing buy a horse - like two butchers from Boston - and race for a chance at some small prize purses.  Not the stuff of the elite stables and trainers with six or seven figure dollar horses would ever compete.  The claimers were Dom's bread and butter, training horses for the modest owners who would race in Suffolk Downs, Rockingham Park or Gulfstream and Calder in Florida 

So in June 1981, Dom chose a $30,000 Claimer race in Monmouth Park, NJ, for Timely Writer's first race.  Someone could have literally put down $30k to buy the horse at the start of the race so obviously the horse had unknown greatness at that time.  But it did not take long for it to be revealed - he took the top spot in his first race.

His second race at Suffolk Downs in Boston on July 4th was the Mayflower Stakes.  One of two major stakes races held at Suffolk, the other being The Massachusetts Handicap which was held two weeks prior - and won by a 24-1 odds horse - Soldier Boy - also trained by Domenic!  So it is hard to imagine lightning would strike twice for Dom so soon, but Timely Writer easily won and almost broke a 38-year-old track record, missing it by one-tenth of a second.

The same trainer winning the two most prestigious races at Suffolk Downs was unprecedented in the then 47 year history of the Suffolk.  As Dom told the Boston Globe after the race, "If someone told me a couple weeks ago that I would win the Masscap AND the Mayflower - I would have told them they were smoking something."

In August Dom entered Timely Writer in the Grade 1 Hopeful Stakes in Saratoga, NY.  Again he pulled out a surprise win over premier horses by 4 1/2 lengths.

 

The end of Timely Writer's career as a 2 year old was in another Grade 1 race, The Champagne Stakes in Belmont Park, NY.  This race also featured the other standout, a 2 year old named Deputy Minister, a horse that won eight out if its last nine starts and was considered the top contender for Canadian Horse of the Year as well as the Eclipse Award, the American Thoroughbred awards.  The other contender for the Eclipse - Timely Writer.  This head to head race would surely show the best horse in 1981.

The race ultimately did show the best horse - Timely Writer - with an impressive come from behind win over the 4-5 odd favorite Deputy Minister, winning down the stretch by 5 lengths.  The press were now believers that Timely Writer was the leading contender for the Eclipse Award for a 2 year old Horse of the Year.

Boston Globe October 23, 1981

The $13,500 colt was also fetching $3 million dollars for half-interest in the horse, which would include lucrative stud fees once his racing career was complete.  Dom was also nominated for several awards from the New England Turf Writer Awards.  And Kentucky Derby favorite was mentioned in every article about Timely Writer at this point.  Things could not have been better for the Martin's, Dom Imprescia and Timely Writer. 

But in an unexplainable snub, Deputy Minister was awarded the Eclipse Award for the Outstanding 2 year old.  The owners of Timely Writer took the snub very personally as shown in this Boston Globe article in December 1981.  The Martins as well as the fans of the horse in Boston felt like the elites did not want to accept a horse that rose up the ranks from a claimer to Grade 1 horse compared to a horse with the money and power establishment behind it.

Sports writers in Boston were also outraged at the snub as seen by editorial below:

Dom fared much better at the end of the year with the New England Tuft Writers Awards.  He had a stunning year with not just Timely Writer but two other horses.

In 1982 Timely Writer was poised to be dominant in his 3 year old season including the biggest - The Kentucky Derby on the first Saturday in May.  But there were several big races in Florida for the winter season that would prepare him.

But no one could be prepared for what 1982 would bring and it will go down as one of the most tragic stories in Thoroughbred racing history.

To be continued...